snake

HATCHLING

by no means
profligate
or ultra fertile

I have fathered
(just to offer
a conservative
estimate)
around twenty
thousand children

or perhaps, being
somewhat elapid
in my nature,
I should call
them hatchlings,
think of them
as true
to type, reflections
of my serpentine, often
venomous demeanor

not brown
like the Aussie
brown snake
nor black, death-velvet
mouthed like
our own
dear black mamba

but up with this gang
whose wisdom so far
exceeds what
I can barely
achieve posing
as human

twenty thousand offspring
(and maybe some change)
so don’t
ask their names,
their achievements
and titles
where and how
documented, perhaps
preserved
no hatchling of mine
has any respect
for all yout acadenic hypocrisies
and concerted double dealings

trying to live
their lives, make their way
slither into
your consciouness, root out
rodents and such like

many
killed on the spot
victims of crude misunderstanding

so many
already disappeared, barely
seeing light of day

the odd one, perhaps
even this one (for what
ever rational, logical,
critical, aesthetic reason),
destined to remain

snake in a box
picture of coiled contentment

mindful
ambush predator
haemo- and neurotoxic

totally at peace
Zen moment
or so it
would seem

but no
finer out the box thinker
better escapologist
than this
      sleepy lightning
rod clan

this
   in reality
alike
in
mythology

shedding its lifetime
of skins faster
than
you
change your clothes
shed outworn soul’s

snakes here in abundance
though I do not
cannot yet see them

coiled around my limbs, my
heart, neck,
wrists ankles

no snake eyes as such
but certainly snake mind

TAIPAN

I do hope
these feeble offerings

meet expectations
blend in with perceptions

fit the ruling algorithm
work wonders in the wash
with
every colonial.mindset
under the Sun,
the skin-cancer Sun
likely to play havoc
with the
shade of our species

need to hit this one
not just out
of the park
but across the entire outback
(mustn’t
come boomeranging back
in any size shape or form)

or return
with that sour vomit reflux
that you
people antipodean
have just way too
many synonyms for

and so
as you see by my references
and appendix certification

I have not only
chosen wisely and well
but have measured every
word, graphene,
syllable using
precise laser alignment
and most exact
of micrometers

have filtered via pipette
to withhold any residue

what is left
should be
immune to distaste,
inoculated against deep scrutiny

unless somewhere in
the nature of the whole toxic
chemistry
produced a venom more
troublesome than
that of
the inland taipan itself
.

SNAKE

I am snake
always
curled up
somewhere

reading
William Blake

sticking out
my tongue at you
— no disrespect!
only to
taste
what your molecules
say
what they
wish to do

we can slip past, evade
each other,
not a problem, perfect
solution

unless
you set on gleaning
a smidgen of
my wisdom

wish
to dance; wish to talk

MORTAL COIL

ANACONDA

reconnoitre
my anaconda

see what proclivity for
algebra

her evil eye
able to solve for the
lengthiest equations

serpentine mind slithering
axiomatically

perfect physique for
quadrilateral equations
pure Amazonian
when
calculus calls

not at all flummoxed
if the ground
should be shifting

Kurt Godel’s theme
of incompleteness
her piece of cake

and if
using her body to
define new systems of geometry
topology

no lever needed
to make her cosmos move

ANACONDA

was trying

to rhyme
my anaconda

get it
to do tricks and
every
perform sundry
to maundry

put on fool bells
and smirk-clown greasepaint
in vain
in vanity

and me a snake too
as Taoism sees it

think would get him
her to shapeshift, budge
yellow green yellow-green
yellow

limit to the spectrum
archetype notwithstanding

(no bend in this landscape
states of curvature only)

will
tell if it feels the same
when tunneling inside

TONGUE TALK

I flick out my tongue
to test the air for you

drink
your scent

rattle
appreciation

no
threat display

though lately
I have been told
I am
indeed venomous
potent neurotoxic

am thinking that
the glory of my dance
and the
beauty
of my coils
sly sophistication
of my
pattern

will
win you round

WATER MOCCASIN

I waa thinking
of a dream poem
about a new
dream body

when all of a sudden
a mud-coloured water moccasin
broke through the surface
of my flow
alerting me to
the inescapable nature of entropy
and the primeval structure
of my being

and here the skunk odours
of this approaching viper
alerted me
at once to the dingy, tawdry, drab
undercurrents
of all life

and so
I sensed it best to put
all dream-minded thoughts
on hold, let
them back burn for
the night

water mocassin gliding
effortlessly by
not as ornery a reptile
as is
the reputation.

SHOSHONE

SHOSHONE

you were so in
need of the fruit
from the tree of antithesis

when I came upon you
arrived on the scene
slithered amongst you
rattling my
tail off to wake
you up

not much hope there
popping gobstopper-sized
pills to kill
your anxiety

already
you can see what
it has done to
your internal rhyme

scheme and system
pretty much shot to Hell

last to say this, for
obvious reasons, but
right now,
      at this juncture, need
to stand
outside yourself, commit
to alterity, flick
         switch to at least
semi-
    Slavoj

dialectic might be just
a pipe dream
   but what better
pipe
    conduit to great
spirit do we
full Shoshone have?